THE Lazarus-like resurrection of Marv Albert’s brilliant broadcasting career seems to be complete. Marv, who was benched in 1997 after pleading guilty in a kinky-sex case, is rumored to be on the point of signing a huge contract to become lead NBA commentator for the ABC network and its cable channel, ESPN, next season.

No one is commenting on the record, but my sources say Albert, 60, is looking at a deal that could bring him around $4 million a year – a sizable raise above what he’s now paid by NBC and the Madison Square Garden network.

“The real surprise would be if ABC didn’t entice Marv away from NBC,” says one of my informed sources. “Marv is the voice of the NBA, and as soon as ABC beat NBC for the basketball rights they started talks with him. It’s like when Fox won the NFL and hired John Madden and Co.”

Albert, one of the most popular sportscasters in the business, fell from grace when a woman with whom he’d had a long affair accused him of forcing her to do strange things in a Virginia hotel bedroom.

The woman, Vanessa Perhach, a 42-year-old hotel employee, claimed Albert bit her and made her give him oral sex because he was angry that she refused to let him bring another man into their tryst.

Marv pleaded guilty to assault and battery, apologized to Perhach and walked out of court virtually penalty-free. But the case made him the butt of late-night TV jibes and wrecked his career.

NBC fired Albert, and he was forced to resign from the MSG spot. But a year later, MSG eased him back on the air and soon after, NBC negotiated a new deal. There was also some sympathy for Albert, who some felt had copped a plea to bum rap. (I can think of several Congressmen who are walking around wearing panties under their three-piece suits.)

Anyway, Albert is now almost certainly going to the Disney-owned network and ESPN. It’s expected he will also keep the MSG gig and continues to be one of the most visible commentators on the air.

It’s a dog’s life

IF you want to make a quick $5,000, get over to Central Park and start calling out “Here, George. Here, George.” A black Labrador retriever of that name belongs to sugar king Pepe Fanjul. The dog slipped his leash Monday night while being walked in the park. (He may have been heading down to Madison Square Garden to check out the bitches at the Westminster Dog Show.) George, who is micro-chipped, knows his way around Palm Beach, Southampton and the Dominican Republic, but is at a bit of a loss in Manhattan. Pepe and the Fanjul family are heartbroken and will gladly pay the reward – and maybe throw in a lifetime supply of sugar – if you find George and call Paul Wilmot at (212) 206-7447.

Doing Justice

FORMER Yankee slugger David Justice (now of the Oakland A’s) just learned he and his wife, Rebecca, are going to have a boy this summer. They won’t be able to call the kid David Jr. – his former fiancée, who’s suing him for $5 million support, already has a baby of that name – but you just know that there are going to be some ball-playing Justices around for decades to come. The pregnant Rebecca will be in Los Angeles the first week of March, producing her annual Exotic Spices calendar while David is in spring training in Arizona. The beautiful Rebecca is Miss February in the current calendar, but doesn’t want to do any pregnant poses for the new one.

Moneymaker

OF the five Best Actor Oscar nominees, it’s fair to say “In the Bedroom” star Tom Wilkinson is the least known. But he does have a claim to fame for appearing in that quirky hit “The Full Monty.” Just before the nominations were announced yesterday, Wilkinson was chatting with Webster Hall art curator Baird Jones and said how proud he was that “Monty” remains the most profitable British movie ever made – even topping the Bond pictures.

For art’s sake

RENOWNED artist Jamie Wyeth knows what it’s like to be young and starting out, so he has happily volunteered to host a gala opening at Broome Street’s The Time Is Always Now gallery on March 4. The exhibition features the work of students and faculty of the highly regarded Savannah College of Art and Design. Wyeth is riding high on his own exhibit (now at the Kennedy Center in D.C., and coming to Lincoln Center) of his paintings of Rudolph Nureyev. All the right Washington people – like Ted Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith, George Stevens and David Rockefeller – have been to the show that portrays 10 years of the ballet star’s life.

The write time

SHE’S been on the cover of hundreds of romance novels, so it figures that the lovely Cindy Guyer knows how to write a bodice-ripper. Cindy was at Roth’s Westside Steakhouse the other night celebrating her birthday and the signing of a contract with Romance Times editor Katherine Falk. Cindy and Katherine are going to co-write some breathless books of their own.

Better late than never

ONE of the major Fashion Week events that were supposed to happen last September is happening tonight. Marie-Christiane Marek is hosting cocktails in the refurbished Cartier mansion for the likes of Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Narciso Rodriguez and Ingrid Sischy. [More fashion events on Pages 18-20.]